3/21/25
Lesbian Subcultures Less Visible
● Long tradition in Europe of female “romantic friendships”
● Used fashion to mask
The New Women at the turn of the 20th Century
● Manish style
● Had short hair, wore pants, and rode a bicycle
● New liberated woman
Flaneur
● Charles Baudelaire coined the term (similar to British dandy)
○ Understanding that most of these men were probably gay or embraced growing
sexual practices of the time
○ Baudelaire was put on trial for trying to corrupt public morals ; grew his
popularity
● About seeing and being seen in the new architecture of Parisian city
● Cosmopolitan
○ Fashionable, diverse, international even
● Only available to bourgeois men
○ Inappropriate for a woman to be out this late at night being seen by men
○ Women would face more danger than men would
○ Severe damage to reputation as well
● Attention to clothing and fashion
● Poem “Lesbos” incorrectly associated with Greek Island with sex between women helped
bring the word lesbian into European languages
○ Not actually what was happening there, kinda just making things up
● French flaneur associated with public sex, while lesbians are associated with more
secretive practices
○ His whole reason is to see and be seen
○ Lesbians don’t publicly display their homosexuality
Prostitution
● Women who came to the cities from rural areas
● Employers often given unquestioned authority and asserted their “right” to sexual access
● Also most casual prostitutes who worked seasonally or to attain a small luxury/in times
when they needed to supplement income
○ Line between professional and casual prostitutes often blurred
○ Example : Brasseries à Femmes (cafes for women)
○ Example : London’s Soho District bar owners
● Demand for prostitution growing
● Men would be forced into marriage if they impregnate a woman
○ Especially if they promised marriage
○ Would be enforced by law
Lesbian Subcultures Less Visible
● Long tradition in Europe of female “romantic friendships”
● Used fashion to mask
The New Women at the turn of the 20th Century
● Manish style
● Had short hair, wore pants, and rode a bicycle
● New liberated woman
Flaneur
● Charles Baudelaire coined the term (similar to British dandy)
○ Understanding that most of these men were probably gay or embraced growing
sexual practices of the time
○ Baudelaire was put on trial for trying to corrupt public morals ; grew his
popularity
● About seeing and being seen in the new architecture of Parisian city
● Cosmopolitan
○ Fashionable, diverse, international even
● Only available to bourgeois men
○ Inappropriate for a woman to be out this late at night being seen by men
○ Women would face more danger than men would
○ Severe damage to reputation as well
● Attention to clothing and fashion
● Poem “Lesbos” incorrectly associated with Greek Island with sex between women helped
bring the word lesbian into European languages
○ Not actually what was happening there, kinda just making things up
● French flaneur associated with public sex, while lesbians are associated with more
secretive practices
○ His whole reason is to see and be seen
○ Lesbians don’t publicly display their homosexuality
Prostitution
● Women who came to the cities from rural areas
● Employers often given unquestioned authority and asserted their “right” to sexual access
● Also most casual prostitutes who worked seasonally or to attain a small luxury/in times
when they needed to supplement income
○ Line between professional and casual prostitutes often blurred
○ Example : Brasseries à Femmes (cafes for women)
○ Example : London’s Soho District bar owners
● Demand for prostitution growing
● Men would be forced into marriage if they impregnate a woman
○ Especially if they promised marriage
○ Would be enforced by law
